Now we have a working game engine, we need to make the game more interesting.
We can do this in a number of ways.
- Think of an interesting setting: in a castle, on a spaceship, in a school for witches and wizards…
- What quest are we setting the player? To find the gold? Escape from the space station before it explodes? To find the spy?
- How about adding some characters: dragons, vampires, aliens, zombies?
- What sort of objects could we use? Magic wands, rayguns, teleporters?
- What sort of puzzles and riddles could we add?
Exercise
- Think of the setting for your game. What does the player have to do (what’s their quest?)
- Draw a map for your game (see lesson 1 for an example) Don’t add too many locations – 16 is more then enough.
- Think of the objects the player will have to use and add them to the map.
- Make a note of the game play. What will the player have to do to complete the game.
- Now modify the code of the game engine to write your own game.
- Get your partner to play the game and feedback.
- Make any improvements to the game.
Tony Ballantyne Tech 